Woke up on Saturday morning after the shitty loss and didn't really feel like playing poker much, went out to enjoy the sun and hung out with a bunch of friends. Went to see the new Indiana Jones film too... man that put me on the megatilt...*** SPOILERS ***
I rate the Indiana Jones trilogy amongst the best films ever made, the final 2 in particular I watched like a million times when I was a kid. The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was a great film, however as a fourth Indiana Jones film it SUCKED. Right from the start there was shitty hollywood cheese, one liners and crappy jokes about Indy's now being old. I'd say I hated the ending more than any ending I've ever seen in a film. All the alien shit, man what the fuck were they thinking, it was just utter nonsense and turning Indiana Jones into fucking Men in Black. Then CG segment of the UFO taking off, and the cheesy one liners about space at the end. Are you kidding me? It's Indiana Jones, not the fucking X-files! So ruined. :(
There were a ton of bits in the film that irritated the hell out of me. Shia LaBeouf (who was awesome btw) swinging through the trees with the Monkeys FAILLLL, Mac's entire pointless plot filling envolvement with the film MASSIVE FAIL, casting the Janitor from Scrubs... FAIIIIL, explaining every little thing in the shitty plot as if the writers assume the audience are stupid when noone gives a fuck anyway because the plot is ridiculously farfetched... FAIL.
All that said, the action sequences in the film are fantastic and the settings/props are great. It is probably great by regular action film standards, but it's not a great Indiana Jones film.
*** END SPOILERS ***
Man that was a solid rant. Anyway, needed to take Sunday off poker also due to the Indiana Jones tilt, went up norf and spent a bunch of time with my cousins and the family and generally just lazed about in the sun which rocked. So hmmmmm, not a very hardcore grinding end to week as a pro...
Here are the main things I took away from week as a (lazy) pro...
It's extremely difficult to stay disciplined
I thought this was way overrated but it's a lot more difficult than I expected. I was pretty easily distracted, couldn't get into a good daily routine, and generally just didn't put in enough hands.
I'd need to be a lot more efficient
A bunch of my time was wasted table selecting, soemtimes playing less than4 tables (as there weren't enough good tables available at iPoker), spending too much time on hand analysis, blogging and IM. Overall if poker was to be treated like a full time job I'd for sure need to be more efficient with my "working hours". I actually feel like I put in quite a lot of poker hours, and if my time management was more efficient then I would have got in an extra 1-2k hands.
Grinding on your own is lonely
I'm used to working in a large team and always having a lot of friends around to mess around with, chat, help each other out, take breaks, etc. Grinding at home it's just me and the computer. It's a LOT less fun. Also, sometimes I don't feel like working, but at least when I go to work there are people to talk to and stuff, however when you're not in the mood for grinding there's just grinding, which kind of leads on to...
Playing when you *have* to play is different from playing when you *want* to play
When you grind part time you play when you want to play, this makes poker a lot of fun... I spend a lot of time at work looking forward to playing, it's also a good release from everyday life. However grinding full-time you *have* to play, and despite still enjoying it, it does become more of a chore because you know you have to get those hands in. You start looking forward to doing other things when you're grinding poker.
Conclusion
All of that being said there are a ton of positive things, like not having a boss, working your own hours, taking holidays whenever, etc, etc. I think with improved efficiency and self-discipline, and living with other professional players then it would be a lot of fun. However it wouldn't suit me personally right now. I think I'd need to be doing $10k+ months regularly to even consider turning pro, mainly because I really enjoy my job.
Graph is pretty meaningless due to being only 5.6k hands, but some people like results so here you go. It's useful just to laugh at the shitty last 1k hands anyway :)
6 comments:
gd post m8. lol @ the indi tilt ahaha. You make some perfect points about life as a full time fish. I need/gonna make changes. You're graphs sucks cok btw :-)
I've started working from home and discipline is a major issue with me at the moment. If I don't want to log any hours I simply don'thave to but then there is no cash at the end of the month!
The fish who posted a comment is the same, fucker would be loaded if he stopped pulling one off and played some poker!
Good post and intresting to see that its that tough, If you do get to making more than 10k a month i think the money will be the thing that makes you play, One thing you could try is to join a coaching site and try get some low stakes players you can teach. Lots of mini projects if you will. Hope you wont charge your group tho :).
Sorry to read/see the downer end to the week, but in some ways, if you are evaluating going pro full time, it's a good thing to have happened. Just because, like the discipline you mentioned, dealing with more frequent swings (in both directions) will also be hard, so you need to embrace (or at least "accept") them.
I wonder what the multiplier in expected earn would have to be to go from a full time job that you enjoy (or at least don't dislike) to grind full time. I think for me, it would be between 2x and 3x...by the time you include variance, medical benefits, etc.
I think the point you made about playing when you have to as opposed to playing when you want to is a huge distinction that few if any of us recreational grinders -- however serious we may be -- can really appreciate.
Nice mini-experiment you ran, even if the results weren't there :(.
hi barry
as the rest have said , nice post , really insightful , and the comments by marc are right , its good to have happened now , waht about the solutions . here's a couple
kick that indi shit into touch and go and watch iron man !! one of my all time superhero film endings , awesome , i still laugh everytime i think about it !!
discipline is something that everyone needs to work on in all walks of life , not just poker , im sure i read a post somwhere about practising it at every opportunity , like when youre out and stuff at the shops travelling , focus on what youre doing , it a mind thing !!
And then the lonliness , how about
playing in a team , like maybe a group of you play togeather ! , you could motivate each other , advise each other ( just an idea )
anyway later
graham
great post.
good points about the pitfalls of playing for a living.
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